Allen thinks players should be paid to play in Olympics


Since losing his starting gig, Ray Allen hasn't been talking too much to the Boston media, but while in Miami, Fox Sports Florida was able to get his thoughts on the Olympics.
"You talk about the patriotism that guys should want to play for, but you (need to) find a way to entice the guys," Allen said. "It's not the easiest thing in the world if you play deep in the playoffs and then you get two, three weeks off and then you start training again to play more basketball where it requires you to be away from home and in another country. It's fun, but your body does need a break.

"Everybody says, 'Play for your country.' But (NBA players are) commodities, your businesses. You think about it, you do camps in the summer, you have various opportunities to make money. When you go overseas and play basketball, you lose those opportunties, what you may make… If I'm an accountant and I get outsourced by my firm, I'm going to make some money somewhere else."

We all love Ray here because he's a Celtic and he makes a valid point about NBA players that play deep into the playoffs needing a break in the Summer. That said, how much has Ray made in America playing basketball? A couple hundred million maybe, counting salary, endorsements, movies, etc? So talking about missing out on making more money hosting basketball camps in the Summer wouldn't sit so well if the speaker was LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. I mean seriously, if LeBron said this he'd be getting killed.


Once the Cold War ended, the Olympics lost some of its luster to some Americans. It's still a huge deal for an Italian to play in the Olympics for Italy, or a Serbian to play for Serbia, or a Spaniard to play for Spain. It's what they are. Many Americans don't feel the same. Some definitely do, but when talking about NBA players that are eligible to play for the United States in the Olympics you'd have to ask them.

In America often people classify themselves with a hyphen. African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Asian-Americans etc. I remember after 9/11 seeing tons of American flags on people's porches, but they disappeared as time wore on. Not sure I've ever seen an American flag flying outside of an NBA player's home when specials are done on their not so humble abodes.

So this is definitely a water cooler topic. If LeBron said the 100's of millions of dollars he makes is nice and all, but he'd rather make some more on basketball camps in the Summer then representing the country that gives him the freedom to make those 100's of millions of dollars how would feel? Ray said it though. How do you feel?